About Us

Friday, May 31, 2013

In her latest column, DrFran answers not an email, but a question by a friend in an inworld conversation. The friend mentioned another friend, and posed the question: is it possible for someone to spend too much time in Second Life? DrFran has some answers, and comments for the questions. It might not be quite what some might expect.

Gemma Cleanslate has been busy at work as a volunteer for the SL10B staff, helping to get exhibitors to their plots and taking care of any problems. The work has been busy, but she gets to see the new builds come up.

The Madpea games area will be shutting down it's Carnival soon, but before it vanishes there will be one last event there, a "Demolition Party" with music, a raffle, and zombies, lots and lots of zombies.

After 7 months of entertaining SL residents with evil thrills, rides and
games, the MadPea Carneval is closing down. While we are sad to see it
go, we’re also excited to have the space for creating new! To celebrate the Carneval, we are arranging a huge Demolition party on May 31st starting at 12pm SLT!

In its latest blog post, Linden Lab announces another update for it's viewer ready to be downloaded by the residents. It says it's been updating "Project Shinning - an initiative that will make avatars load and rez more quickly and reliably."

We’ve tested changing of outfits, avatar swapping, and initial avatar loading into worlds, and our tests showed performance gains across the board. Bottom line, Second Life users will experience less time in “clouded” or untextured avatar states and/or completely failed bakes that require relogs.

They included a video, narrated by Torley Linden, with details. The blog post promises "important updates you'll need to enjoy the benefits of Project Sunshine, so update if you haven't yet."

My own personal experience with the new viewer, based on a day's experience, was mixed. Avatars can still take a while a load. But eventually they did, although it could still take a few minutes, even in a place with just several other avatars. For someone used to chat interfaces based on Viewer 1, the communications HUD left something to be desired, especially when getting a number of Instant Messages. When I had to talk to several people at once, I had to log off and go back to Singularity. And once when trying to log on, the viewer just refused to coooperate (picture above). On the other hand, the glitch from the last official viewer of freezes and crashes when making IMs seemed to be gone, when it was working anyway.

Linden Lab promises two more updates, the first being "A server-side update, rolling out soon. It's at this point that you'll began to notice significant improvements in avatar and object load times and reliability." But for those who don't upgrade, the Grid will be a gray world. And later on, "A second Viewer update, released after the server-side improvements are rolled out." It's with this third step that the Lab says users will get "the full benefits of Project Sunshine."

With many residents still using the older Phoenix Viewers rather than the official viewers, it remains to be seen if everyone will benefit from Project Sunshine.

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Nydia Tungsten is back with another reader submitted article. Having played the Multiplayer Online Game "Star Wars The Old Republic," she wrote a review about the game. The game is noted for Jedi characters having two choices to go: Light Side and Dark Side. But to Nydia, that wasn't the division that truly separated players.

In his traveling about Second Life for clubs, Theonlyjohnny came across one that was a bit different. The "Rock N Rustic Ranch" had a country theme, playing country music. There was also one other feature that he noticed that made it different from other places. So what did he think of the club?

We are a group that provides in world support to those dealing with depression and/ or the loss of a loved on to suicide. We can make the world a better place together. We have been around since 2009, we are an active group.

Join us!

Survivors of Suicide Depression Support group offers
* Daily positive living and healing articles
* 24/7 Peer support via the groups chat
* Join a community that understands what you are going through, as the are also
* Education about depression and depression related issues
* Referrals to real life resources
* Don't be alone

We have a club house with lots of healing and self help note cards from past posting. It is a great place to hang out and has greedy greedy and una games out for all to enjoy. Feel free to come and enjoy and explore.

Please tell others about SOS buy having it in your profile and./or handing out SOS 1 prim signs that stores, clubs and places in SL can put out to help more people find us. Talk us up to any bloggers you know and magazine people.

Any help you can provide will be most welcome.

Also seeking a place to host a immersive educational art exhibit about suicide. It will be a walk through exhibit. If you know of anyone with sim space to host this for a month, I would love to know. Thank you.

Grey Lupindo is back from her latest exploration on the Grid. She had recently paid a visit to a historical sim, Renaissance Island. There, one can see things as they were in 1500s England, with the buildings and clothes. The place also has a number of fun events that locals and visitors alike can take part in.Read Grey's article in Places.

Although once known by his fox avatar, for some time Grease Coakes has been seen most often in a Gryphon avatar. So when a furry avatar company had plans to make one of their own, Grease took interest and had a talk to the builders. So what goes on with building an avatar in Second Life? Quite a bit.

On Sunday May 26th, the evening before Memorial Day, Veterans Isle hosted a Wounded Warriors Benefit concert. From 6 to 9PM SL time, three musicians performed live for the audience at the stage for the veterans community and friends of. The event was in part organized by guitarist Frets Nirvana.

ABOUT WOUNDED WARRIORS - Wounded Warriors program has developed significantly over the last several years to include advocacy, benefits counseling, caregivers retreats, coping/family services, peer mentoring, warriors to work and many other. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Veterans%20Isle/70/216/23

For the first hour, DennyMac performed on stage. From 7PM SL time to 8, Frets Nirvana himself performed for the crowd with his guitar. And in the last hour, Avantgarde Frequency played his piano. Just after Avantgarde got off the stage, Frets made an announcement, "Folks we raised 160k for Wounded Warriors tonight ...thank you to all who supported!"

There was an announcement of another event the following evening on Memorial Day. But events didn't go as planned, and instead a DJ performed for the small crowd.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

It's an eventful time in Second Life. This week marks the start of the Relay for Life Home and Garden show, with 11 sims and over a hundred exhibitors and a schedule of music events. There's a number of other Relay for Life events as well. And there's our regularly scheduled live and DJ music parties, book &
poetry readings, discussions, talk shows, races, and church services.

From Thursday May 30th to Sunday June 2nd, the 1920s Berlin Project will be holding special events to celebrate four years on the Grid. The following was on the 1920s Berlin blog:

On the 30th of may, 4 years ago I opened the first version of our
1920s Berlin sim, it became a much bigger success then I could have
imagined and has managed to survive longer then anyone could have
predicted. To celebrate the sim's birthday and how well the sim is doing in general, we’re having a few days of fun! The schedule may change at any time, but at the moment it looks a bit like this:

Thursday 30th May: Keller party, small scale. We’ll drink,
hand out some freebies, dance, chat and invite everyone who wants to to
get up on stage to tell about their discovery of Berlin, their life
here, to perhaps sing, do a trick or show off another talent.

Monday, May 27, 2013

In addition to it's regular monthly show on the last Sunday of every month last night, Veterans Isle will be hosting a special Memorial Day show, raising funds for the Wounded Warrior Project. The event will start at 6PM SL time, and continue on to Midnight. Besides the musicians performing, there will be "a recorded interview that was done live with a WWII veteran."

DrFran Babcock takes a moment from her tour of the first sims of Second Life to report on the latest area she explored: Mina. Unlike a few of the other historic sims, the place had a number of active residents, one she talked to. So what awaits the tourist who drops by? Plenty.

Yesterday on Sunday May 26, the sims for the SL10B celebration were open to those whom would be setting up the exhibits, or helping out to. All day begining at Noon SL time, exhibitors IMed the SL10B group asking to be made part of the new exhibition group so they could teleport over to their plots. Since applications were closed on May 20th, the exhibitors began getting their notifications in the email. This includes Second Life Newser, which got it's notification a few days ago.

The Newser's plot is in the SL10B Astonish sim, the northeast corner of the event grounds. Like the others, it was 1024 square meters (32x32) with a 269 prim capacity and a 175 ft height limit.

Each exhibitor got a "Cake Slice," with a few notecards and things, made to resemble a slice of cake with the words "It All Starts With a Cube," a quote from Philip Linden.

Among the contents were "Exhibitor" tags to be worn by avatars. The title for exhibitors in their new group was "SL10B Exhibitionist," which got a few chuckles in the group chat.

Residents were asked to drop something on the sim to let everyone know the plot had been claimed. For the SL Newser's plot, there was one object that would tell everyone for sure whose plot it was.

A wider view of this corner of the SL10B grounds. A few other plots had already been claimed as well. While some just had a cake slice dropped, others had at least something set up on the plot.

A couple exhibitors looked like they already were set up for show.

It's still three weeks until the SL10B event begins, so there's still plenty of time for the exhibitors to set up their builds. Including the SL Newser, which will soon have something else in place of "The Hat." Stay tuned for more updates.

From Bobcat, "U.S. Military Veterans Center, Created by and for U.S. military
veterans, active duty and families. Bridging the gap between generations
for all services, Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard. DAV,
VFW, Legion & more. Shop our Navy Exchange and the Hangar!"

Filmed at Patriot Island. The Veterans Center later moved to the Veterans Isle sim.

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Last weekend, Bay City celebrated five years on the Grid. And what do the residents of Second Life's noted area representing the 20th Century North American urban experience do when their anniversary rolls around? Throw a parade and a dance. The event was attended by many residents, including a number of noted residents and a few writers.

Rodvik Humble who is CEO of Linden Lab today came inworld for about half
an hour to hang out with SL residents in the Weston region in Bay City.
A large crowd formed around Rodvik within minutes and had a interesting
discussion. The reason that Rodvik Humble came inworld will be revealed
soon. Wooooot!!!!

I had invited Herr Humble for a free tour of the sim a while back and was told he would be dropping in today. It was great to finally meet his avatar in person. The welcoming community of 1920s Berlin was very excited to have him as a guest and we all hope his avatar will come more often.

Rodvik Linden is not known to visit the Grid often, at least not recently. Earlier in 2011 not long after becoming CEO, he did make an effort in "getting immersed in Second Life" and he did make an appearance at SL8B. Since then however, Rod hadn't been noticed. Do these visits mean the head of the Lab will take the time to visit inworld more often. Time will tell.

Friday, May 24, 2013

Burn2 is hosting a fun event this weekend in Deep Hole on the playa. It is
called “Color Out of the Lines.” The sim will be open from Noon time Friday
until Saturday night at 11:59. Come and express your inner builder.

There is an
ample supply of materials: building blocks, shapes, textures for you already
there, or you can bring your own. There are small sandboxes with a four hour
return for you to play in. If you have never built before this is a good
way to start. There will be helpers there to assist you. There are already some lovely builds by well known artists on the playa. Music and
partying is also going on.

It's been about a week since the last of the Third-Party Linden Exchangers were closed. AnsheX, owned by SL tycoon Anshe Chung, quietly ceased trading. Podex, owned and operated by Jacek Shuftan, was shut down when Jacek's account was suspended by Linden Lab. On the same day, the Lab announced it's new terms for "Authorized Linden Resellers." Of the many exchangers that had once been operating, only five had been approved for the new plan. Among them was AnsheX.

A couple days ago, Jacek's suspension was finally lifted. He however had not gotten a response from Linden Lab concerning his application to continue trading Lindens. And now about a week after Linden Lab's last announcement, the list of five allowed resellers remains at five.

It's unclear why no additional new Linden Resellers have been authorized.

At
the Angels Beach Land Rental Agency, you can find a new and good home
in Second Life. With many sims to choose from, in the Sunweaver
Estates, Sherkin Island, and Purrfection, you can choose from a variety
of environments.

We offer places with friendly and interesting
neighbors. Some places have a tropical island look, others more
temperate. Some of the sims have access to enough water to boat around
in. And there are plans later on for an open water sim for even more
water activities. The sims are home to a number of quality clubs, such
as Cutlass and Zero Gravity. In one sim alone there are two quality clubs
that work together so there is no lag from them. There are also some
small shopping areas available.

The
sims range from Mature to Adult, but the purpose of the adult rating is
for a relaxed atmosphere in which couples can relax. The places do not
allow for harassment, and while there are vendors that cater to mature
tastes they are discreet about it. Spaces available range from small
plots to a full homestead that will rent out for only $26,500L's per
month. Most of the sims break the parcels down into 512 Sqm parcels and
and most have a sliding rent scale, so the more you rent the cheaper it
gets. Our prices are VERY competitive here in Second Life.

And
if you bring a friend to an Angels Beach area, you get more than just a
good neighbor. Anyone that refers a renter to us and they rent land,
they will recieve 10% of the first months rent. And if someone you know
needs help renting out land on his/her sim, bring them to us. Renters
who bring in a sim owner needing administration, we will give 10% of our
first check.

From Draxtor Despress, "Motion capture artist Abramelin Wolfe monetizes his creativity by
humanizing our virtual lives -- one fluid movement at a time. He puts
his dream of an immersive future succinctly: "We want a universe that we
can step into!"

Edinburgh-based Abranimations is run by the
Englishman with his Scottish wife who designs colorful mesh avatars. The
couple makes their living capturing performances ranging from everyday
walking and communicating to 1920's flapper dances and Geisha sequences.
They then sell the polished animations in their in-world store to a
global userbase by way of the Linden Dollar.

But the virtual
world is more about fun than it is about commerce for him, says
Abramelin: "Second Life is about other people's creativity. Some of it
is beautiful. Some of it is just strange...but all of it is amazing! It
is like looking into their minds."

Abramelin's hectic work
schedule includes expanding the business to encompass services for the
emerging Scottish video game industry, but he always finds time to take
long flights over the vast virtual mainland to marvel at user-created
chaos and beauty. It's a digital testament to human ingenuity and the
desire to exercise that muscle of imagination."

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Last Friday was an annual tradition at the Steelhead Community. May 18th is the birthday of local Tensai Hilra. It's also the anniversary of the eruption of Mount. St. Helens. And with Steelhead having their own St. Helens and a population of mad scientists, the result was the biggest lava lamp as part of a party for Tensai.

Reader Nydia Tungsten is back with another game review. This time she gives a basic review of the biggest online game of all: World of Warcraft. For those whom haven't yet played the game, here's a little of what to expect if you take the plunge.

Today I got my first peek at the empty SL10Birthday community
celebration sims. I went over to attend a training session for Exhibitor
Assistant. Diana Renoir and Doc Gascoigne presented the session and reminded us
of our duties. This is a job I did last year at the SL9B and loved it. When the
builders arrive on the sim at their plot, before they can build, the EA’s need
to give them their tools and help them get settled with all their building
rights: music, media. name of the plot, landing points, and what ever else they
require.

It is a very exciting and busy time. Then we get to watch the empty
sims fill up with marvelous creative exhibits. And so, at this time the
notifications to the builders (and other volunteer applicants) are going out. There are so many it will take some days for all notices to arrive so watch
your e-mail if you are waiting. The sims will open to builders on this
Sunday, May 26. The sim coordinators and Exhibitor Assistants will be waiting
for them. Let the party preparation begin!!

I will keep you updated on the
progress. Remember it opens on June 16 and will be open until June 29, with
stage performances ending June 23. I promise you, no matter how many
times you visit you will never see everything there is to see! Though I will
start work this Sunday I know from last years I will never see it all! Keep an
eye on the Blog! – There will be regular updates and information posted
there!

Grease Coakes recently went back to the first person he interviewed for the Newser, DJ Aurora Avila. About a year and a half later, this busy avian is still spinning the tunes at AnthroXtacy, and has tried her hand at a little building.

In his first article as an official writer for the Newser, Theonlyjohnny Resident takes a look at Club Toxxic Haven. An old favorite of his, the place was once full and bustling. Now, well, it's a different story.

Color Outside Of The Lines brings a May explosion of creation and celebration of mother to the Virtual Playa!

In remembrance of the time of our early beginnings; Paper - empty as our abilities, was given to us along with crayons. So we created art. As paint boxes and coloring books appeared we still created art, now of structure and less of our first faltering attempts. As we grew in our art, “She” (our mother figure) was always at our side guiding us, praising us; swift with tape and magnets to post our results upon the fridge.

She was always there to encourage us and to push us further to use chalk, clay, and anything that came to hand. She was our muse and sponsor, and always gave us permission to COLOR OUTSIDE OF THE LINES.

BURN2 – Deep Hole, Join us May 24th and 25th for a two day event with music and collaborative creative art building. Celebrate the act of art creation and the role of Her(our mother figure).

The Playa will OPEN to the public at NOON on FRIDAY, May 24 at the following location:

Drum, Play, Celebrate: Come join the Lamplighters each day to drum and perform. There are no bystanders.

Create, Share, Keep: Small creative areas are setup for participants to "color outside of the lines" by moving the different shaped objects supplied or adding their own to a group art piece that will only last four hours (take a copy! quick!).

Join us, free your inner Burner, and once again explore art and honor the mother muse we all have. Share the news with friends! See below for more information and to share on all your favorite networks:

BURN2 is an extension of the Burning Man festival and community into the world of Second Life. It is an officially sanctioned Burning Man regional event, and the only virtual world event out of more than 100 real world Regional groups.

The BURN2 Team operates events year around, culminating in an annual major festival of community, art and fire in the fall - a virtual echo of Burning Man itself

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

It's a week full of events in Second Life. For the Relay For Life, this week marks the 100th Anniversary of the American Cancer Society. So there will be a special event at ACS Island today and tomorrow. There's also "Paint SL Purple" and the RFL "Home Expo." This Sunday is the Wounded Warrior Benefit at Veterans Isle. And of course there's our regularly scheduled live and DJ music parties, book & poetry readings, discussions, talk shows, races, and church services.

We live in a world where standards on genders
exist. In one sport in SL, someone's sex doesn't matter. Scroll down to learn
more about this refreshing activity.

Warrior Instinct Nations, formerly known as
Averlast, was opened in July 2007, by Karine Koba. Ms. Koba wanted an
establishment that provided not only excellent boxing events and equipment to
train with for this sport, but also a variety of activities outside Boxing. I
will list some of the other pastimes this business offers in a bit. First allow
me to tell you how to play in this business’s main competition: Boxing.

"On May 22nd,
the American Cancer Society will celebrate
100 years in existence! Since 1913, the Society has been at the
forefront of many innovative discoveries and has been a driving force in
providing services to cancer patients that can’t be found elsewhere.
Today, two out of every three patients diagnosed with cancer will
survive, due to those discoveries, but the American Cancer Society will
not stop until it is three out of three!
You are invited to join the Relay For Life of Second Life community as
we kick off the birthday celebration with a Celebration of Hope on
Tuesday, May 21st from 5pm to 7pm SLT on the American Cancer Society sim. On Wednesday, May 22nd,
we hope you will stop by for the ACS Island Open House throughout the
day. Stop in and learn more about the American Cancer Society and all
that it offers in world and out. We look forward to seeing you there!"

Monday, May 20, 2013

Grey Lupindo is back and writing again. Her latest article is of an art exhibition, “Realism in Second Life, at the Cuauhnahuac Gallery in Instituto Espanol. Set in a replica of a real-life museum in Mexico, the exhibition features a variety of pictures from Ruben Acajou and Sandralee Palianta.

DrFran Babcock had a chance to check out an exhibition at the Linden Endowment of the Arts area, "Tales of the Ghost Forest." Created by Uan Ceriaptrix, this land is a combination of the "familiar and alien." The artist describes a place in which humanity has left the planet, and new life is taking over, with alien beings watching.

It's been a busy weekend, with time spent writing about the latest Linden fiasco and last weekend's Relay event, there was just enough time to cover the Steelhead St Helens Party, the Bay City Parade and a little bit of the "Halfway There Fair." If you're in a hurry to read up on Bay City, Daniel Voyager wrote about it. But right now for this pooped Fox Reporter, it's time for rest. More on these events later this week, plus an interview with Pooky Amsterdam.

Jo states Oculus "truly is a game changer," "I can already imagine myself walking around those dark narrow streets, looking up, down, around me. Finally being able to see my city trough my eyes in stead of the eyes of my avatar. … It could give SL an enormous boost, put it back in the view of those who might have forgotten about it, and it could show off a whole new side of the OC."

Chatting with Rod Humble, Jo quoted him as saying, "Hopefully we will be sharing some vids within a few weeks then get into testing after that. I don't want to overhype this BUT SL+OR is like having dinner with Stefan Zweig and Peter Altenberg."

Hamlet Au called integration an "enormous gamble" that he earlier doubted the Lab would undertake. And in one article Jo Yardley linked to, the writer felt OpenSim would get it first. But it looks like Rod Humble, noted for his experience in gaming, will be having Linden Lab work on it.